Vascular Injuries After Total Joint Arthroplasty

Acute occlusion of aortobifemoral bypass graft after revision total hip arthroplasty

“…Unfortunately, all that one can realistically achieve is to minimize these complications [6]. With the addition of this case report, approach does not appear to affect the formation of thrombosis on aortobifemoral bypass grafts [14].…”

“…From a physician perspective, knowing that these complications can occur during any phase of the surgery is important. A majority of similar vascular complications occurred during the patients hospital stay, but one report had a patient come in 12 days after vascular injury with a necrotic limb [6]. In this case, preventing the loss of the limb can be attributed to having a patient aware of the possible complications, and multidisciplinary team-based action once the issue was identified.…”

“…One retrospective series of ten THAs was performed utilizing the anterior approach in the presence of aortobifemoral bypass graft and none led to thrombosis [14]. Revision surgery potentially increases the rate of vascular injuries [6]. Ischemia may occur with stretching of diseased vessels contracted by scar, especially if correction of contracture or lengthening occurs during surgery [14].…”

“…As this population ages, more pre-existing medical conditions will be present in the patient base, potentially increasing the surgical risk [2][3][4]. The risk of vascular injury is increased in patients with pre-existing vascular disease symptoms such as sensory disturbances, claudication, atherosclerosis, or decreased distal pulses [5][6]. Total hip arthroplasty is considered a safe, elective procedure but is not without fatal complications [7][8][9].…”

“…Compromise of the vascular supply is a complication with serious consequences. Specifically, acute arterial thrombosis is a life-and limb-threatening injury, and although rare, can occur during THA [5][6]. Arterial complication associated with THA are reported to be 0.08% [5].…”